Guest Writer Joshua Davis
“TOMIE”
(1999) Directed by Ataru Oikawa, Not Rated (Equivalent of R)
As you’re probably aware, the vast majority of the films I’ll be writing about are ones that I’ve seen before and like well enough to recommend to you. Well, for this year, there’s a little something I’d like to try in order to keep things unpredictable. I’d like to add a recurring theme to some of this year’s reviews, and the films I review to supplement the theme will be films that I have never seen before. Sounds fun, and it indeed will be, but the one drawback is that there is a strong chance I may not like the film I’m reviewing. At all. I sincerely doubt that will happen because I try to find the positives in just about any film I view (and usually do). And, no matter how much I may dislike a movie, I encourage all of you to watch the film anyway and decide on your own.
So, that being said, I’d like to take this opportunity afforded to me by Adam Sass to explore the unusual world of Japanese Horror. I’ve been a fan of Japanese cinema in general for many years now but I’ve been reluctant to embrace the horror genre because my few experiences with it thus far have been a little off-putting. That, and the majority of the films I’ve seen up to this point have been the ones that just about everyone has seen (RINGU, JU-ON: THE GRUDGE, AUDITION, etc), and to be quite honest, those films just didn’t grab me. Well…they didn’t grab me at the time. I’m older now, more film literate AND more interested in Japanese culture in general, so I’m more open to exploring this bizarre cinema of the macabre from the land of the rising sun. But I won’t bore you or myself by covering the films like the ones noted above which remake-happy Hollywood has carbon-copied. I’m going to look into the ones that are so much a product of their culture that Hollywood would never think of remaking them because they just wouldn’t translate.
Plus, in my own weird way, I would think that watching a horror film from a country with a culture far removed from our own (but not TOO far removed — Japan has become quite Americanized, after all) would enhance a sense of dislocation and feelings of being in a land of the unknown — and, as I’ve said before, being involved with the unknown is one of the key components of making me (and many others) successfully scared out of their shit. Yee-haw!
So, to begin this little adventure, I decided upon the film TOMIE — the first in a rather successful series of films. To date, this franchise has spawned seven sequels. That alone made me think that there has to be something worthwhile in this.
TOMIE is based on a manga series by Junji Ito, creator of the absolutely insane UZUMAKI (which was also made into a film that I HAVE seen, and it’s one I will definitely cover at a later date because it shouldn’t be missed). Again, for me, another plus. The story concerns a schoolgirl who, basically, is a demon that is the embodiment of pure lust and all of the terrible things associated within. She is a cruel creature who possesses the ability to make men fall in love with her almost instantly, and then she utilizes different tactics to make these love struck people go mad with jealousy and rage so that they can destroy her. She WANTS to be destroyed. Ironically, though…she almost always survives. If there is ANY part of her that is left over after her destruction (it can even be something as minute as a fingertip), she automatically regenerates herself, reptile-style. This has become something of a hassle for Tomie, because she has been around for ages now — long enough to become jealous of humanity and the things that they can experience that she probably never will.
Sounds pretty good, eh? Robust, rich, compelling? (Damn, sounds like I’m describing a cup of coffee.) I think so. Definitely movie material. With all this in mind, I finally manage to find a copy of the first TOMIE film and snatch it up immediately. And, with all that in mind, imagine my disappointment as the film came to a close.
The movie has a decent number of things going for it. For starters, it has an eerie title song that is repeated at various points throughout the movie to great effect. Hell, just go ahead and give it a listen. This video is also made up of clips of the movie itself, so use this to get a peek into what you’re in store for:
Also, as you can probably see from the video, the film has a dark, grainy visual style (it looks almost as if it was shot on 16mm) that more often than not is a BIG plus in any horror film. It has a cute, appealing lead actress in Mami Nakamura. Miho Kanno, the actress playing Tomie herself, is also quite good and holds the camera especially well during a creepy and effective sequence where the two finally meet each other in a hospital. There are seeds of greatness sprinkled all throughout this movie. What the movie lacks, unfortunately, is a focused script or direction. And this is the saddest thing because with material as ripe as this is, you’d think they’d attract filmmakers with a bit more imagination and excitement for the material than these guys seem to have.
The major flaw with the direction is that it just doesn’t seem sure how to handle this flat-as-a-board screenplay. Director Ataru Oikawa (who also wrote) plays a good portion of the movie out in master shots — and while this works initially (Oikawa seems to be building a sense of dread and suspense from the onset), it all starts to fall apart when you realize that he didn’t really give himself anything to work with in the writing. A lot of the scenes are just characters sitting around talking — talking about things that would have been MUCH more interesting (and scarier) to see. For example, we first learn about what Tomie really is by having one character explaining it to another while sitting in an office. Why couldn’t we have discovered that through actual action? And as the story progresses, things become so muddled that you kinda lose track of what’s going on. By the end of the movie, you’re more confused than scared.
This is a damn shame, because the story is ripe for a scary-as-hell motion picture. From my understanding, some of the sequels are much better, and frankly it kinda sucks that I had to end up reviewing this one instead of one of the others. Still, this is the only one I had access to, and it seems proper to start with the first film, anyway.
So, all in all, the movie does have some things going for it, a few effective sequences, but it’s mostly a big letdown. I’m not going to tell you guys not to watch it, but…don’t get your hopes up.
I know I posted the music video above, but for completion’s sake, here’s the trailer. Overall, much more effective than the movie itself:
I’ll be perioically returning to the world of J-Horror, so stay tuned…
FUN FACT: I actually don’t have a fun fact for this particular film, so how about a FUN IMAGE:
From the TOMIE manga. ,,,yikes.
